Watertown Chief defends secret SWAT record keeping

Saturday

Jul 12, 2014 at 9:30 PMJul 12, 2014 at 9:31 PM

By Angie DeWittwatertown@wickedlocal.com

A week after the Mass. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) for not releasing their records to the public, Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau defended the police force saying the records are private for a reason.In late June, the ACLU sent records requests to SWAT teams all over Mass. but did not receive any open records. Massachusetts is one of several states that utilize Law Enforcement Councils (LEC), which are funded by numerous police agencies in a regional area. These LECs are overseen by an executive board, usually consisting of police chiefs from member police departments.Covering Middlesex and Essex County, NEMLEC maintains they are a private corporation and therefore immune to Mass. open records laws. NEMLEC is comprised of 58 police or sheriff agencies, including Watertown."The ACLU has had this [open records] request for years, however just recently took the position to sue, though the departments haven’t been served and have yet to seen any paperwork," Deveau said in an interview last week.Although federally funded, NEMLEC has incorporated itself as a 501(c)(3) organization, which means they’re a private organization, not a government agency. Therefore they are untouched by the state’s open record laws.But, much of their equipment comes through federal grants, Deveau said."NEMLEC can't have it both ways," said ACLU of Massachusetts staff attorney Jessie Rossman. "Either it is a public entity subject to public records laws, or what it is doing is illegal."According to Rossman, Mass. residents are unaware of how often the SWAT teams are used, what they are used for, what sort of training they receive or whom they’re primarily used against.According to Deveau, attorneys around the state have advised the departments, Watertown included, that they don’t meet the public records standards that ACLU is trying to state."Some of the things they are asking for [us to make public knowledge] are how we protect Watertown and Greater Boston," said Deveau. "We want to be careful releasing that type of information."Deveau said if they have to release it, they will."However, we are [currently keeping the records confidential] to protect our officers and our citizens. I would think most people would support us on that," he said.Watertown has 65 police officers – Deveau said it wouldn’t make sense for him to try to have a SWAT team solely for Watertown. However with the shared resources and officers among the 58 agencies that make up NEMLEC, it makes sense for him to put one officer on the now fully manned SWAT team.NEMLEC also has a motorcycle unit, 200-man rapid response team that deals with lost children and civil disturbances, a school threat assessment and response system, a computer crime unit and a regional communications and incident management assistance team, according to a report filed by the Mass. chapter of the ACLU about police militarization in Mass.Approximately 240 of 351 police departments in Mass. belong to an LEC, funded by local and federal taxpayer money, and composed exclusively of public police officers and sheriffs, according to the report.NEMLEC has been around since the 1970s, however the organization has gotten bigger over the years as homeland security has become more of a concern, said Deveau."A lot of people ask ‘how can we do more with less, and how can we regionalize?’" he said. "LEC is a good example of how people can have a lot of resources and one community doesn’t have to pay a significant amount of money to make that happen."